Repeat a mistake enough times and you’ll know it by name. Then you can catch it before it happens.

Mistakes made once look like accidents. The same one, several times over, has a shape to it: the circumstances that bring it on, the warning sign just before, the particular step you tend to skip. Once you can describe it in a sentence it becomes something to watch for rather than an unpleasant surprise. Naming it is most of the fix, since you cannot look out for something you have not identified.

Think of the error you keep making and write it down in one short sentence, including when it tends to happen. Put it where you will see it before that task.